From its foundation in 1768 the Royal Academy of Arts has provided a voice for art and artists. We are an independent charity led by eminent artists and architects—the Royal Academicians—and we pursue our mission through exhibitions, education and debate.

Living artists. Leading art.

About the RA

We exist to promote art and artists – a mission we pursue through exhibitions, education and debate.

Who we are

What makes us different?

We are an Academy. We have much in common with museums and other galleries, but we have a broader role – to promote not just the appreciation and understanding of art, but also its practice.

We are artist-led. Our artists represent many different perspectives, but we all share a deep commitment to art and a strong belief in the contribution that artists make to the world.

We are an independent charity. Unlike most of our peers we do not receive revenue funding from government and so we are reliant upon the support of visitors, donors, sponsors, and the loyal Friends of the Royal Academy to continue our work.

Peter Freeth RA

Benedict Johnson 2013

Led by artists

Royal Academicians

Just as our founders intended, we are still led by many of the greatest artists and architects of the day.

Known as Royal Academicians, they are all practising artists who help to steer our vision and support our activities.

From teaching in the RA Schools to deciding on our exhibitions programme, they are at the heart of everything we do.

World-class exhibitions

Variety, excellence and originality

The diversity of our exhibitions programme sets us apart. From ancient sculptures to modern-day masterpieces and large-scale installations, we are the original home of the blockbuster.

From 2010-13, five of the world’s top ten exhibitions with the highest daily attendance were held at the RA, including David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture,The Real Van Gogh and Anish Kapoor RA. In 2015, nearly 400,000 visitors came to see Ai Weiwei.

As well as the household names, we love to help you discover your new favourite artists. The Sackler Wing and our Burlington Gardens galleries provide the perfect space to do this, from American abstract artist Richard Diebenkorn, to the undiscovered Renaissance genius Giovanni Battista Moroni.

Academicians play an important role in our exhibitions, from setting the programme to presenting their own work.

Summer Exhibition

What will you discover?

“There shall be an Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures and Designs, which shall be open to all Artists of distinguished Merit.”

This quote, from our Instrument of Foundation, captures what the Summer Exhibition is all about: opening our galleries up to the finest artistic talents of the day, selected purely on merit.

It is the world’s largest open entry exhibition, and has taken place every year since 1769.

Each year, we have thousands of entries in all styles and media. These are narrowed down by a team of Royal Academicians to around 1,000 works for the final show.

This British institution is a highlight of the social calendar. Its many traditions include a celebratory parade down Piccadilly before the doors open to the public, and the serving of restorative beef tea during the hanging.

The RA Collection

A compelling story of British art and artists

All Royal Academicians give a work to our Collection when elected, creating a treasure trove of British art. Over the decades we have amassed everything from masterpieces by Constable, historic objects like Queen Victoria’s paintbox and modern-day creations by some of our finest artists.

We’re incredibly proud of our Collection, and we display works from it around our buildings. You can look forward to seeing even more of it over the coming years, as we build new spaces for its display.

Our Collection includes the first fine art library in Britain, where our staff look after thousands of historic volumes, monographs, books on British art, prints, photographs and drawings.

Working with the community

Reaching new audiences

Not everyone has access to art, so our Learning team work hard to forge partnerships in the wider community which introduce more and more people to what we do here. We currently work with organisations including Action Space, St Christopher’s Hospice, Capital Arts, Crisis, Leonard Cheshire Disability, Portugal Prints, Soho Community Centre and Vital Regeneration.

We run a monthly Art Club for homeless and vulnerable adults, that include visits to RA exhibitions, discussion about art and art-making sessions in a variety of mediums. These are in partnership with St Mungo’s Broadway, The Passage, The Connection at St Martin in the Fields, Westminster Drugs, Arlington House Studio 5, and Seymour Art Collective. We are always thinking of new ways to inspire visitors we meet through our partnerships, whether it be workshops, discussions, tours or special events.

Cross-partner collaboration

With the support of JTI, the RA and London Philharmonic Orchestra have been working with homeless and vulnerably housed members of Crisis and with disabled adults from Leonard Cheshire Disability since 2012.

The result has been a series of music and art workshops, visits to exhibitions, an exploration and creation of music and music performances. This short documentary film captures the highlights of the partnership and how the project has impacted on the participants.

Our future

A new chapter in our story

It’s an exciting time for us. To celebrate our 250th anniversary in 2018, we are making major improvements to our facilities.

Over time, you will see a link built between our Piccadilly and Burlington Gardens galleries, a new 300-seat lecture theatre and an expanded RA Schools, giving our students more space to create. An extensive renovation of all our historic buildings will allow their original features to shine through. We’re also reaching out to new audiences, both onsite and online.

Our story

A company of artists

On a winter’s day in 1768, architect Sir William Chambers visited the king, George III. He brought with him a petition signed by 36 artists and architects including himself, all of whom were seeking permission to ‘establish a society for promoting the Arts of Design’. What’s more, they also proposed an annual exhibition and a School of Design. Lucky for us, the King said yes. And so the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal Academy Schools, and what you know today as the Summer Exhibition, were born. They set up home in Pall Mall, renting a gallery that was just 30 feet long.

Johan Zoffany,The Portraits of the Academicians of the Royal Academy,1771-72.

The first Academicians

A multicultural bunch, of the 36 founding Members, four were Italian, one was French, one Swiss and one American. Among the number were two women, Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffmann.

Above, you can see Johan Zoffany’s famous portrait of the founders, set in the Life Drawing Room of Old Somerset House. It was completed in 1772 and includes our first president Sir Joshua Reynolds, seen in a black suit left of centre. Zoffany probably hoped his painting would please the King, and he was successful: the King bought it for 500 guineas, or about £65,000 in today’s money.

Moving home

In 1775, Sir William Chambers won the commission to design the new Somerset House. It would become, among other things, our new home and first official residence. The Exhibition Room was a thing of beauty, 32 feet high and situated at the top of a steep winding staircase, it was described by literary critic Joseph Baretti as “undoubtedly at the date, the finest gallery for displaying pictures so far built”.

In the 1830s, we moved to Trafalgar Square to share premises with the newly-founded National Gallery. However, with space at a premium, we were on the move again in 1867 to Burlington House, where we remain to this day. Fortunately, our President at the time, Francis Grant, drove a hard bargain and secured our new home for an annual rent of £1 for 999 years.

Our story

An American in London

The story of our second President is a fascinating one. Benjamin West was born in Pennsylvania in 1738 and grew up in a world where art was little known. But with pioneering spirit, he travelled to Europe for his education and found success in Rome.

Later arriving in England, he became a close friend of the King and his ‘History Painter’. He never returned to America but is considered the founding father of the American school of painting. He was so popular that he was elected President by his fellow members with just one opposing vote. He also had a first-rate eye for talent and once comforted a down-hearted young Constable after he’d had a work rejected by the Academy with these words, “Don’t be disheartened young man, we shall hear more of you again; you must have loved nature before you could have painted this.”

Women at the RA

We have a somewhat chequered history when it comes to equality of the sexes. Although Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffman flew the flag for women in 1768, it took another 168 years before another woman was elected as a full Academician, Laura Knight in 1936.

In 1879, the Council of the day came to the conclusion that our original Instrument of Foundation did not allow for women RAs. Eventually, they relented and passed a resolution to make women eligible, but only on the condition of restricted privileges. A few years later in 1913, we invoked the wrath of the suffragettes and a demonstration was held in the galleries. One woman slashed a portrait of Henry James by Sargent while another hacked at a painting by George Clausen. Catastrophe was also narrowly averted when one protestor attempted to start a fire in the toilets.

The child prodigy

The beginning of the Victorian period saw us admit our youngest ever student to the RA Schools, the ten year old John Everett Millais in 1839. He was immediately given the rather unoriginal nickname ‘The Child’.

He went on to become one of the most successful artists of the 19th century and a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The Brotherhood hoped to emulate the art of late medieval and early Renaissance Europe, characterised by intricate detail, bright colours and truth to nature. Although the movement’s activity lasted little more than five years, its influence on British art continues to this day.

In 1896, Millais was elected President of the RA, but sadly, it was doomed to be a short tenure. He was in poor health at the time, and just six months after his election he was buried in Painters’ Corner of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Our story

Italian Art

The first blockbusters

One of our founding principles was to hold an annual exhibition that anyone could enter, and anyone could visit. Today, it’s called the Summer Exhibition and it has taken place every year since 1769, including during both World Wars.

From the late 19th century, we began to hold international loan exhibitions. One in particular that went down in history was our Italian Art exhibition in 1930. The galleries were flooded with masterpieces, including Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Raphael’s La Donna Velata and Donatello’s David – but it didn’t pass without controversy. Highly politicised, it was attended by Mussolini as a way of furthering the cause of Fascism.

Reimagining London

Our doors remained open during World War Two, just as they had during the First World War, but our President at the time, Edwin Lutyens, had some radical ideas about how London should be rebuilt after the conflict. Some of the schemes proposed in the RA Planning Committee’s London Replanned report, included a road bridge across the Thames that would obliterate Charing Cross Station, an enormous roundabout behind St Martin-in-the-Fields and the demolition of the existing Opera House in Covent Garden to make way for a new music and dramatic centre.

Lutyens’ ideas may have been unpopular with most, but our next President, Alfred Munnings, didn’t do much better in endearing himself to his colleagues or the public…

Famous last words

Alfred Munnings took office in 1944. He became infamous when during one RA dinner, he drunkenly began to berate modern art and aspects of the Academy itself. After slating Picasso, he moved on to London County Council, who he criticised for exhibiting modern sculpture in Battersea Park, and the Tate for showing Matisse. To make matters worse, the whole tirade was being broadcast live by the BBC.

Munnings had already decided to resign before he made the speech – and made sure he went out with a bang.

Our story

Sir Hugh Casson PRA,Why not be a Friend,c. 1980.

Drawing printed on letterhead paper. Photo: Royal Academy of Arts.

Making new Friends

The 1970s saw a period of renewal, with the election of one of our most enterprising Presidents, Sir Hugh Casson. Casson had always been one to embrace change and in 1948, he had been appointed Director of Architecture at the Festival of Britain. Relishing the challenge, he set out to celebrate peace and modernity through working with other young architects, 39-year-old Leslie Martin for example, who designed the modernist Royal Festival Hall. Casson’s role in the Festival of Britain was a huge success and he was knighted in 1952.

As President of the RA, he began our Friends of the RA membership scheme in 1977, the first of its kind in Europe. Our Friends now number over 90,000. They come to all our exhibitions for free, enjoy all day access to the Keeper’s House, are invited to special events and are sent RA Magazine three times a year. They’re some of our most loyal supporters: we’d be lost without them.

Sackler Galleries CROP

Photo: Dennis Gilbert

A new view of the RA

In 1991, we opened The Sackler Wing, designed by Royal Academicians Norman Foster and Spencer de Grey.

With its sleek glass staircase and light-filled atrium, The Sackler Wing introduced elegant new gallery spaces to replace the Victorian Diploma Galleries and is a sensitive union of old and new. The landing before you enter these galleries is also where you will find Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo, his only marble sculpture in the UK and one of the most treasured works in our Collection.

Foster himself has spoken of how the design of our Sackler Wing helped lay the groundwork for later projects, including the Great Court at the British Museum, demonstrating “a clear philosophy about how you make modern intervention in historical structures” and create “a meaningful relationship between old and new”.

The Royal Academy’s north-facing Entrance, Burlington Gardens, in 2018

Image: Hayes Davidson

An Academy for the 21st century

In 1998, we bought 6 Burlington Gardens, a beautiful listed building originally designed by Sir James Pennethorne RA for the University of London in the 19th century. Since 2012, we have hosted exciting contemporary shows in these new galleries, showcasing the work of our Academicians from Richard Rogers to Allen Jones.

For our anniversary in 2018 we have exciting plans to link Burlington House with Burlington Gardens. This will open up the RA as never before, transforming our historic buildings – and inviting Friends and visitors old and new to celebrate with us.

Come 2018, you will also find a 300-seat lecture theatre, our first dedicated learning centre and totally refurbished gallery spaces, one of which will be devoted to our historic Collection.

Piccadilly site

Burlington Gardens site

A voice for art and artists since 1768

The Royal Academy of Arts is an independent charity and does not receive revenue funding from government. We are entirely reliant upon the support of visitors, our loyal Friends, Patrons, donors and sponsors to continue our work. Your support is our future.